“At one point in my career, I had $98, a mattress, and a floor,” Norma Kamali told us at the Fashion Group International’s 14th Annual Rising Star Awards luncheon, hosted by Condé Nast Digital editorial director Jamie Pallot. “There’s always going to be something that tests your ability, so get past it and then get [...]

It wasn’t always in the cards, but the footwear that Maria Cornejo created with L.A.-based cobbler George Esquivel are walking right off the runway and into stores—and tonight at a trunk show at Cornejo’s Bleecker Street Zero boutique, they’ll be available for holiday orders in custom colors. “It’s the tiny details of construction that make [...]

About those real, cherry-pit buttons that Behnaz Sarafpour has been using in her collection: “It’s not from me baking cherry pies in the summer,” the designer said with a laugh at last night’s CFDA & Lexus Hybrid Living Eco Fashion Challenge. “We found someone professional who gets the pits, cleans them, and turns them into [...]

Considering the canopy print for pre-fall was created from a photo of the sun setting over Melrose Place, it feels fitting that Maria Cornejo opened her new boutique in Los Angeles. “The way the clothes are and my sensibility in fashion is very laid-back, and I think it really fits the L.A. lifestyle,” the designer [...]

It was a bit of a motley crew that The New Yorker pulled together for Fashion Forward, a panel discussion, moderated by staff writer Judith Thurman, that was part of its New Yorker Festival offerings in New York this weekend. Five New York-based designers—Naeem Khan, Phillip Lim, Maria Cornejo, and Rag & Bone boys Marcus [...]

To make your party stand out from the rest during fashion week, it helps to have a few tricks up your sleeve—and A Small World chairman and man-about-town Patrick Liotard-Vogt certainly had one last night, in the form of magician David Blaine. All eyes (most of them very, very wide) were on the prestidigitator’s lightning-quick [...]

Exposed lingerie was a big story on the Spring runways. At the recent Resort collections, designers tweaked the trend, swapping bras for bandeaux. Echoing the 1940’s by way of the seventies, Yves Saint Laurent’s Stefano Pilati paired his with turbans and high-waisted skirts that left the models’ toned midriffs exposed. Others took a more covered-up [...]

Looking through Maria Cornejo’s Resort ‘11 collection, I found myself coming back again and again to the chunky wooden accessories shown with the label’s wares. They’re the work of Victoria Simes, who works with Cornejo and styles her shows but also finds time to design her own jewelry line, Saltalamacchia—hence the cuffs and necklaces. They’re [...]

Like most women, Zero designer Maria Cornejo has had some trouble over the years finding a swimsuit that’s well designed, flattering, and practical. What’s a designer to do but design them herself? This week, Cornejo’s first swimsuits debut—first at a private event Thursday night, then on sale to the public Friday—just in time for beach [...]

Attention, supermarket shoppers: That’s a Maria Cornejo in aisle 3. “If clothes aren’t worn, they’re not alive,” Cornejo said about the accessibility of American design. “I always tell my assistant, ‘I can’t wear this to Trader Joe’s!’ ” The Chilean designer was speaking at the Cooper-Hewitt museum alongside Calvin Klein’s Francisco Costa and Yeohlee Teng [...]